Why you'll never see the Queen wearing these colours on Christmas Day


There are plenty of rules concerning what the royals wear on Christmas Day, and they naturally involve many outfit changes. If you think I'm exaggerating, wait 'til you hear the Queen has seven outfits on the big day.
Looking back at previous years, we know how much Her Majesty likes wearing bright colours, especially to attend their annual Christmas Day service at Sandringham Church, so the crowd can spot her easily.
She's worn blue, orange and pink in the past, however there are certain colours you will never see her wear on the 25th December. Why? Well it's all to do with her Christmas speech.
In her book The Other Side of the Coin: The Queen, the Dresser and the Wardrobe, Angela Kelly, the Queen's dresser, said she has to think carefully about what looks good on screen.
'Firstly, I ask what colours and decorations they’re planning to use for the scene and they’ll give me a detailed description, including which furniture will be featured and how the tree will be decorated. I then pick out a selection of outfits for The Queen based on the colours chosen for the setting,' she says.
She steers away from green, as that would clash with the tree, and red, since it doesn't show well on screen.
'Ultimately, I leave it up to the production team to decide on the final outfit as the camera crews and producers know what will work and what won’t: red, for example, is difficult to capture on camera, and in green, Her Majesty might disappear into the background, depending on the positioning of the tree,' Angela concludes.
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Penny Goldstone is the Digital Fashion Editor at Marie Claire, covering everything from catwalk trends to royal fashion and the latest high street and Instagram must-haves.
Penny grew up in France and studied languages and law at the Sorbonne Nouvelle University in Paris before moving to the UK for her MA in multimedia journalism at Bournemouth University. She moved to the UK permanently and has never looked back (though she does go back regularly to stock up on cheese and wine).
Although she's always loved fashion - she used to create scrapbooks of her favourite trends and looks, including Sienna Miller and Kate Moss' boho phase - her first job was at MoneySavingExpert.com, sourcing the best deals for everything from restaurants to designer sales.
However she quit after two years to follow her true passion, fashion journalism, and after many years of internships and freelance stints at magazines including Red, Cosmopolitan, Stylist and Good Housekeeping, landed her dream job as the Digital Fashion Editor at Marie Claire UK.
Her favourite part of the job is discovering new brands and meeting designers, and travelling the world to attend events and fashion shows. Seeing her first Chanel runway IRL at Paris Fashion Week was a true pinch-me moment.
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